Death of Internet

Google, succumbing to the pressure tactic of Chinese government, is an ominous portent for what the future holds for the free spirit of internet. The internet thrived because of its free spirit, because of the independence it allowed the users to publish their mind. And search engines were the means by which this information was made available to wider audience. Of course some people used internet for not so good purposes like the militants sending encrypted mails and images. That probably necessitated some amount of overt censorship of the freedom, where the activity was unqustionably wrong. (I beleive exploiting internet to spread the network of terror is undeniably unethical). But disallowing a certain section's voice to be suppressed because of the pressure from a hegemonic behemoth, certainly hints that the days of unbridled freedom of information over the internet are numbered. One section's propaganda is another section's truth. And I beleive marginalising the voice of a section because of its economic incapacity, is a sharp reversal from the philosophy of internet that we grew up with.

Google, which was a torch-bearer of the spirit of freedom, with its mega-assortment of free to use tools, is increasingly becoming a shrewd corporate entity, as its grip over the internet becomes tighter. As it increasingly is becoming indispensible on the web, its image of a maverick internet company, managed by a set of magnanimous nerds is sharp becoming obsolete. What is unfolding may not just yet be a sinister plot to colonialize the web, but its certainly disturbing. Once it fully grows into the Walled Box that it is modelling itself to be on the lines of Microsoft, may be some other phoenix will rise in the web sphere to give voice the economically unviable section of the mankind. But the question that still remains how long will the free spirit of such entities be intact before snowballing into the greenbacks of greed? How long is it before the capitalistic intentions of seemingly innocuous web-entities fatally jeopardises the spirit of freedom, with which the internet thrived?

After Sahu It's My Turn Now

I tried making Angelina Jolie. But I think mine's more beautiful than the original. [:D] To be frank Sahu is the best, I can only try.

Discourses on Live, Death and everything

PART I

I was feeling dreary, lackadaisical. In the morning when I was waking up I was not getting the right amount of ego boost to wear my consultant’s tie neatly, to prolong my day with the (haz)ardous banalities that my job invariably brought along, to perpetuate the vainglory of rendering the processes more efficient for my client. Rather I was perennially jacuzzied in the miasma of the eternal dilemma.. am I getting enough out of life? I needed a solution. The elusive solution was so desperately sought that I was ready to sacrify the daily dose of causticities that we magnanimously sprinkled on life, job, boss, girl friend, weather, traffic, congress party over the sutta breaks, the only mechanism by which we reassured ourselves that we mattered on this earth. I was anxious and feverish in the pursuit to get over it. When affordable opulence and decadent profligacy malfunctioned, I turned to morning TV. I went on long vacations. I exasperated my nerves with yoga and took a short course in transcendental meditation. Dabbled with social service. The day I got desperate with my inability to spend some quality time with myself to arrive at the cause of such misfortune, I declared the root-cause for all this to be the fact: FOR FAR TOO LONG I HAD BEEN TAKING MY LIFE FOR GRANTED. As any gaddamn consultant will tell you, once you arrive at the root-cause and you have enough data, arriving at the solution is no big deal. So there I was, with the root-cause of my despair. All I needed was some data and bingo. I was going to live my life to the fullest. As a A pointer in Advanced Market Research, I decided to start with secondary data.

People take life for granted until they wake up to the phenomenon of death. That’s what Manoj Das told me in the opening line of his memoir. I tried waking myself to the phenomenon of death upon reading this. This was not to trivialize the phenomenon that it was but purely as a noble pursuit to infuse an over-arching sense of pathos in those surrounding me, who invariably looked overjoyed, inspired by my fatal cynicism.

I knew at the outset that this concept will infuse unparalleled enthusiasm in the group, by the sheer enormity of pessimism that it was capable of whipping up. As you must have realized by now, in the group very much like me, one thing we all had trouble in bearing was overdose of pessimism. We all deeply cherished pessimism and any passing mention of pessimism was ravenously thrashed about with a sense of unparalleled belongingness that manifested in frenzied hollering and consequent unavoidable gleefulness. And it was unwarranted joy that we all doubted and more precisely despised. The thing that we cherished so dearly always landed us in state from where we desperately wanted to get out of. And that was the genesis of my quest.

kahaani likhne ka avyaas

Its been four years since I appeared for the B-school admissions. And two years since placements. Which is why, I was sort of out of touch with the "name a situation .. " sort of questions asked in interviews, until a friend faced with the interview grind forwarded a list for suggestions..

Reading those questions, was like re-living those golden days when the only things you did were to find "suitable" answers, watch TV and copy assignments .. the answer to these questions, however, did not look so difficult this time..
Aur han, sach to yeh hai ki once you get over the initial unnecessary hurdle of sticking to facts, fir to kahani likhne mein mazaa hi aataa hai !

"Adversity faced in life .. ?"

The classic answer to this is, of course, "maan taayefoyed se bimaar thi, behen ki shaadi karni thi, aur mere college ke gold medallist certificates ko koi dekhne ko tayaar nahi tha, koi naukri nahi thi .."

Chances are, however, that ur life has been comparatively more protected than the best-case scenario painted above. So you will probably start rummaging through your memory desperately for some hint of an incident that would probably fit in here ..
Of course, your biggest adversity in life is your current boss. Or the maths professor in your second year. However, you can't mention that ..

Who are you fooling anyway. Adversity was when you were in the last five of your class in college to yet get a job. Adversity was when you were told that u were not good enough for the school basketball team. Adversity was when your kid bro got all the swiss chocolates your uncle brought, and wouldnt share them with you ..

Adversity was when your ex broke up with you.

The mere thought of that still brings a wry smile to your face.

Adversity is filling up this form. Adversity was when you could not make it to the college of your choice in the first attempt.

hey wait.. that actually sounds good! A promising base for a story which talks of a year of sweat and patience and determination and all those good stuff

Of course, as dilbert would say - no challenges, no learning opportunities .

You note down the incident as "to be developed further", and move on to the next question..


"Distinct contributions to the society by you or your family members..."

Assuming that this calls for something more important than all the five-paisa coins you used to dole out at the mandir gates in the days gone by, you curse yourself for having laughed at Soni's idea of going to that blind school for taking weekend classes..
Maybe you can pay them a visit this weekend and somehow elaborate on that point ?

Of course, there's the time when your hostel decided not to celebrate diwali, but donate all the money collected for the lighting to the Flood Relief fund. Why, you can be the one who suggested the idea and saw it through.

ah, but one does not add meat enough.
Does that blood donation camp that happened in college qualify ? Or maybe, yes all those NSS classes you spent digging ditches and planting saplings ..

"My formative years…"

Irrespective of all mamma's admonitions ki bachpana kab chootega, it seems, we have all grown up. Can you put up the line about life being a continual learning process ? Nah, too smart alecky, too risky you, decide. Better stick to how you watched father work, surrounded by corrupt officials, and learnt honesty.
Or how you went to government school when your father was posted at a remote plant, and learnt about simple living and working hard..

"Explain a situation when you were a part of a team where the group process and/or intended outcome failed. What was your role, how did you contribute to the process or outcome, and what did you learn?"

When I was a part of a team and we failed ? Now, when did that last NOT happen !? But well, picking up an incident for this one is easy. We lost ALL our league matches in basketball in my final year. I am just spoilt for choice.

"Describe an instance in which you took the strongest stand of your value system. What specific values were violated and what was at stake for you?"

This one's easy, too. The very second day in camp when u finally decided to take up a strong stand and queued up at the infirmiry instead of the parade grounds, based on your firm belief in the values of an undisturbed morning's sleep. At stake was the constructive effects of beauty sleep on the development of the human mind. Hah. What would the thick-headed Captain Jaitley know.
But again, the one thing that the world does not really value is truth. You decide to re-use the same old story about when you decided not to follow Prasanth's example and go help yourself to the question-papers for the state engineering entrance exams which were available in the market a day before ..
That the sneak Prasanth never felt it important to tell you and you only knew about the leak from the next days newspapers is another matter. Thank God, however, that the paper was scrapped ..

"Explain a situation where you have brought about any improvement either in your self, work or society."

Doosron ka yeh help karke mein society ka bhalaa hi to kar rahaa hoon.. And writing blogs at work is definitely an improvement over recording minutes of meetings ..